X4: XMen Reformed
by ARogueGambit7
Summary: Still mourning the apparent loss of Professor Xavier, the X-Men must band together to uncover the truth behind the new SENTINEL program. But how will they deal with an enemy beyond both humans and mutants?   Genosha, SENTINELS, Gambit, ROMY, Apocalypse
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This story was written as a fourth X-Men movie, to try and make up for the injustices done in X-3 and Wolverine: Origins. It works best when visualized as a real movie with all the actors (who are listed) because unless we get a miracle, this is probably as good as it gets for those of us who wanted to hear about the SENTINELS, or Genosha, or Apocalypse, or see Rogue and Gambit together, or have a satisfactory ending to the main movies.

X-4: X-Men Revolutions

Act One

_ Egypt, 3000 B.C._

The ancient Egyptian city was on fire as a rebel force plowed through, burning and killing violently.

At the center of the chaos was a young man with grey skin, blue lips, and what appeared to be intricate tattoos all over his body.

A soldier bounded up to him. "We have broken the slaves chains my lord. They are in full riot."

"Good," said the grey skinned man. "You have done well. Now we take the palace."

The soldier nodded. "We will go on ahead of you, my lord."

"No!" said the leader. "No, I must be there, at the head. To end it."

The soldier nodded. All around them were the screams of the violated city.

Inside the palace, the grey skinned rebel pushed open the door to the Pharaoh's chamber. The guards inside started towards him, but were quickly killed by his own soldiers.

The Pharaoh stood. "Nephri. You've come to kill me."

The grey skinned man shook his head. "No. Nephri is deader than you will be. He has become something more. No longer a slave, no longer beneath your heel. I am beyond you. I am greater than you can ever imagine."

"You are a demon," the Pharaoh spat.

The grey skinned man only smiled. "No. I am the future. I am freedom for those strong enough to claim it. I am Apocalypse."

He stepped towards the Pharaoh. "And your time is ended."

The Pharaoh couldn't tell how the grey skinned man had killed him. He only knew he was dying, and the blue lips laughed and laughed.

_The Not Too Distant Future_

Inside the dark of the silent mansion, the sleeping woman tossed and turned. As her nightmares grew worse, so did the darkening skies outside.

In her mind she saw the repeat of a battle, a red headed demon who was once a friend, killing the man who was once like a father to her. A brain wave monitor. Strands of genetic material, the infestation of a virus into cells. A laughing grey skinned man.

Then that voice, his voice, inside her mind. "Mutation...evolution...leaps forward."

Brain wave monitors. Beeping. Rising whispers.

Again, his voice. "Wake up...wake up...wake up."

Storm's eyes flew open, gleaming white, as outside her room lightning clashed.

She stood up in bed, gasping, trying to control herself.

"You alright?"

She scowled at the burly man leaning against her door. "Logan, I believe I have mentioned before that I do not appreciate you entering my room while I am sleeping."

Logan shrugged. "Yeah, well, I'm sure the school wouldn't really appreciate having a category five hurricane coming down on it either." He paused. "Nightmares again."

Storm swallowed and looked away. "I really can't say."

"You know you're not the only one who has them-"

"Logan, when-"

"You're not the only one who's haunted," he plowed forward. "After what happened with the Professor, Scott...Jean, we've all had to deal with it."

Storm shook her head. "Not like this. Logan...they aren't like normal dreams. It's like when the Professor used to send me a message or speak to my mind-"

"Professor's dead Storm," Logan cut her off abruptly. "Just like the rest of them."

Stormed looked at him for a long moment. With what sounded like a repressed growl, Logan finally broke her eye contact and left the room, muttering something she couldn't quite discern. Storm closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and opened eyes now brightly white, as she tried to calm the storm outside. But in her mind, the voice still echoed.

Evolution. Mutation. Leaps Forward.

DIRECTED BY: Bryan Singer

SCRIPT BY: Aubrey Coletti

MUSIC: Henry Jackman

CAST

LOGAN/WOLVERINE: Hugh Jackman

ORORO MUNROE/STORM: Gina Torres

MARIE/ROGUE: Anna Paquin

ERIC LENNSHERR MAGNETO: Ian McKellen

RAVEN DARKHOLME/MYSTIQUE: Rebecca Romijin

REMY LEBEAU/GAMBIT: Taylor Kitsch

BOBBY DRAKE/ICEMAN: Shawn Ashmore

KITTY PRYDE/SHADOWCAT: Ellen Page

HANC MCCOY/BEAST: Kelsey Grammer

HENRY GYRICH: Edward Norton

BOLIVAR TRASK: Alan Tudyk

DESTINY: Helena Bonham Carter

PSYLOCKE: Natalie Dormer

MOIRA MACTAGGERT: Olivia Williams

APOCALYPSE: Naveen Andrews

AND Patrick Stewart AS PROFESSOR CHARLES XAVIER

The two men walked briskly past security towards the oval office, the shorter, bearded man smothering a grin at the worries of the nervous blonde scientist beside him.

"This is the third time this month you've come here, and still no change," insisted scientist Bolivar Trask. "Seems like we're wasting our time."

Henry Gyrich shook his head. "Oh we've made some progress. We'd make more if it weren't for our hairy friend."

Trask huffed. "Yeah, well it doesn't look like he's going anywhere any time soon."

Gyrich pushed the door to the Oval Office ajar and held it open for Trask. "The future is always uncertain."

They entered the Oval Office to find it occupied by two men: the President, seated as his desk, looking vaguely annoyed, and to his right another man-if man you could call him, meticulously dressed in a suit and tie. It was still a shock to see for Trask, as the suit and relaxed demeanor contrasted so greatly with the fact that Hank McCoy was hairy, blue, and to the eyes of those who didn't know him, the very essence of a beast.

The beast nodded. "Mr. Gyrich, Dr. Trask." He shook their hands cordially. "Back again so soon?"

"Still here Hank?" Trask asked. "I'd have expected you back at Xavier's School by now, I had heard you'd taken a part time teaching position."

Hank gave a little laugh. "I'll be back imparting the wisdom of the Bard into restless student's heads just as soon as things are a bit more settled here."

Gyrich still wore his private smile as he said, "You look good," and was awarded with a stiffening of the blue beast. He turned to the President. "Well, Mr. President I don't want to waste too much of your time. You probably already have an idea why I'm here."

The President sighed. "You want me to fully approve the SENTINEL program and enter it into the defense budget."

Gyrich grinned outright. "Almost like he read my mind."

Hank McCoy swallowed and looked away.

"Henry," said the President, "we still haven't fully determined that the program is fool proof. Hank-"

"If the SENTINEL program makes it to the deadline without incident then making it official and expanding it should be an option," Hank put in. "But we want to proceed carefully."

Gyrich tilted his head at the furry mutant. "Funny Dr. McCoy I would figure you'd be one of our strongest supporters. Isn't a big part of dealing with criminal mutants the worry that human prejudice will get in the way and create a lynch mob environment? The SENTINEL program is cold hard computer technology, focused only on those mutants who commit criminal acts."

Tightly, Hank explained, "It's still humans who program those computers. Mr. Gyrich. Not to mention there is worry about the nature of the prison facility these mutants are taken to."

"Prison's never going to be a fun place for anyone Hank, human or mutant," Trask supplied.

"Gentlemen," cut in the President. "I think at the moment we all know how I'm going to rule. Right now the SENTINEL program is doing a hell of a job picking up criminal mutants with minimal damage to the civilian population, and it's managed to persuade people of the importance of differentiating between dangerous mutants and people like you, Hank. Now, we can wait until the cutoff date, but at the moment it looks like this program is the most successful means we have of keeping the peace, and if it stays that way I see no reason not to expand it."

In the center of an abandoned factory Eric Lensherr, the man who was formerly known as Magneto, Master of Magnetism, wanted terrorist, leader of the militant anti-human mutant cause struggled to lift a metal rod without touching it.

The rod rose slightly, and Magneto almost had hope before his feebly returning powers gave out, and he dropped the rod to the ground with a gasp.

Magneto sighed. "Tell a wise person, or else keep silent, because the mass man will mock it right away..." he quoted.

The sound of impossibly heavy footsteps echoed behind him, and he steeled himself as he slowly turned. Huge metal feet stood before him.

Magneto set his jaw. "I praise what is truly alive, what longs to be burned to death."

A snaking metal tentacle reached for him, and he shoved all of his slowly returning power into stopping the hand. It was no use. He faltered and the tentacle wrapped around him, confining him in the metal which was once his to command.

Inside Xavier's School For The Gifted, younger students crowded around the TV, watched over by two older students who had seen more than enough of the world to qualify as their guardians, despite still being in their teens themselves. Rogue pushed aside a strand of her white hair and glanced over at Bobby. He was looking towards the screen. Trying to ignore her. Trying to pretend she hadn't seen all the little glances he had given Kitty, the touches. Touches she was till too uncomfortable to give.

She glanced at the TV.

"The SENTINEL program is the project of Dr. Bolivar Trask and Henry Gyrich," said the reporter, "and has been successful in apprehending criminal mutants, and according to many, restoring faith in the government's ability to protect all it's citizens, both human and mutant. The program is likely to become a permanent fixture in the defense against..."

_Es ist zeit, ihre potenziale Eric._

_No memory, he'll have no memory..._

_I can only manipulate the fire...I can't create it._

Rogue shuddered, looking around as if others would have heard the echoes of the memories in her mind. Memories that weren't hers.

Her hands began to ache. As she stared at them in horror, she began to see the veins that were once the tell-tale signs of her mutant ability to absorb the memories, abilities, and life force of the people she touched.

"No."

"Rogue?"

Bobby turned over to look at her. "What is it."

"I...I have to go," she said in her thick Mississippi accent, before quickly getting up to run out of the room.

[PROFESSOR XAVIER'S STUDY. LOGAN AND ORORO ARE STANDING. THE DOOR OPENS AND BEAST ENTERS WITH THREE WOMEN. ONE OF THEM IS A HUMAN MYSTIQUE]

In the room that was once Professor Xavier's study, Logan and Ororo examined the three women Hank McCoy had brought to the school that was now there's to protect.

"Logan, Ororo," Hank introduced. "I would like you to meet Carol Danvers. She's working with me monitoring the SENTINEL program."

The tall slim blonde with no nonsense eyes shook Ororo, then Logan's hand.

Her grip was like iron to Logan, and for someone with adamantium grafted onto his very bones, that was saying something. "That's a strong arm you got there."

Carol smiled wryly. "It's my gift."

"So you're a part of this SENTINEL thing?" Logan questioned.

Carol shrewdly judged his expression. "You suspect it?"

Logan shrugged. He suspected just about everything these days.

"Well, I can vouch for it," Danvers stated. "This isn't a bunch of people liable to go on a witch hunt for the wrong mutant. The way SENTINEL is designed, it'll only go after those who have proved themselves criminals."

"Who decides who is a criminal?" Logan questioned, with his characteristic lack of tact.

After an awkward silence, Hank gestured to the older of the three new women, who wore dark shades even inside the dimly lit office. "And this is Irene Adler. Irene here has some...interesting new developments she's uncovered, pertaining to a new step in mutation."

"What, you a scientist like Hank?" Logan asked.

Irene smiled "Not quite." She removed her glasses to reveal blind eyes that glittered like opals.

"Irene has the ability to see things before they occur," Hank said significantly.

"What like a fortune teller?" Logan said mockingly. The focus of the room turned icily to him. He looked away, sheepish.

Irene continued "I can detect something new, something more powerful. It's among us now, and it's destiny is tied to this place and your so called X-Men."

Ororo's brow furrowed. "By something new do you mean another mutant?"

Irene gave a lopsided smile. "Barely. What I've seen is the next step in evolution."

Logan struggled visibly as he said, "Well I don't know if you've heard but our last step up in evolution didn't end so very well."

Irene shook head head. "This is beyond even your Jean Grey. What I am sensing is fully formed, fully aware, in control of it's powers, and unwilling to compromise."

Logan gritted his teeth. "And what do you want us to do about it?"

"Nothing, as yet," Irene said infuriatingly. "I simply know I have to be here when what is going to happen happens."

Logan bristled at her presumption. "And if you're _not _here does that mean that this new mutant thing doesn't go down?"

In the outside hallway, Rogue stared at her hands, her body locked in terror.

Back inside the room Ororo began again. "So right now there's nothing we can do except stay and wait for whatever is coming to come?"

"This is bullshit," Logan said, lifting his cigar to his mouth.

"Logan!" Ororo scolded.

"What?" Logan growled.

Hank coughed significantly "If I could perhaps turn the conversation in another direction. The cure which was administered-"

Outside, the whispers in Rogue's mind grew louder, as feelings and memories she had never experienced all jostled for attention in her mind.

Back inside the room, Ororo swallowed hard at the new news. "So the cure isn't permanent?"

"We can't be sure yet," qualified Hank. "But it appears this may be the case. To add to that, the President seems unwilling to listen to my worries about the SENTINEL program."

"You think it may be used to target any and all mutants?" Ororo guessed.

Hank shook his head slightly. "I'm more worried about the nature of the prison camp where the mutants are being held, and how exactly they are holding them. If they are administering a version of the cure and it's effects wear off we could see a very violent new rebellion on our hands."

"On the government's hands you mean," Logan put in.

Outside, Rogue grabbed her head, willing the voices to stop.

Back inside the Office Ororo decisively determined, "Well we can look after Irene for now until we figure out whether to go in and examine the camp on Genosha."

Hank frowned. "Whether to go in?"

Ororo hesitated. "Without the Professor or Jean-"

Logan lifted up his nose and sniffed the air. "Something doesn't smell right."

"What is it?" Ororo asked, looking around nervously.

Logan sniffed again. "I don't know, it-"

The door opened suddenly as Rogue stumbled inside.

"What is it kid?" Logan asked with concern apparent even in his gruff voice. "You look like a wreck."

Rogue swallowed. "I...I don't know."

Rogue glanced around the room, eyes widening at Irene's eyes. She could have sworn the blind woman was looking her over.

"Hello," she offered.

"Rogue honey," Ororo said gently, "why don't you show Ms. Carol Danvers here and Irene and-"

"Rachel," said the raven haired young woman beside Irene. "Rachel Adler. Me and Irene are...together."

Logan's heavy brows reached skyward.

"Oh," said Ororo, then briskly continued. "Then we should be able to fit you two into a room easily. Rogue, if you would."

Rogue nodded. "Sure, just, just follow me."

Irene followed Carol as Rogue led them out. Her companion laid a hand on her shoulder as if guiding her. For a split second, her eyes gleamed not blue, but a brilliant yellow.

Hank sighed, turning back to his friends. "I'm sorry to drop this one you, but I feel we can trust Irene on this one. I myself am uneasy about the SENTINEL program, and with the Professor gone-"

Both Logan and Ororo stiffened and Hank went on more gently, "With Xavier gone we seem to be operating a bit more blindly than usual. A little foresight could be a great advantage to us."

Logan bit down on his cigar and stood up.

"Logan where are you going?" Ororo demanded.

"I don't have any use for prophecies Storm," he said as he walked out the door. "I'll be out back if anyone needs me."

Hank simply gave a little style at Logan's, well, Logan-like behavior. "Well, I can't say I expected anything different. And how are you holding up?"

Ororo felt immobilized by the personal question. "I-"

The phone on the desk rung, saving Ororo from having to speak about personal feelings.

"Yes?" she said to the other line.

"Am I speaking to Ms. Monroe?"

"Yes you are."

"Ms. Munroe this is Moira McTaggert."

It was now sunset, yet the man called Wolverine still stood by the three fresh graves as the sky darkened.

"I'm empty without you Jean," he said, staring blankly at the grave of the woman he had loved. "And we're all empty and flying blind without you Chuck."

About to say more, his keen senses picked up something decidedly wrong, and he sniffed, his muscles tightening.

Something-something foreign, large, and not welcome-moved in the bushes on the edge of the mansion. Logan growled low in his throat.

Ororo shook, her rational mind not comprehending what the former agent on the other line was telling her, her heart begging for it to be true. "I don't see how that can even be possible-"

The sound of grating metal turned her head to the window as something moved past the window.

Hank's eyes widened with realization. "Oh gracious."

Inside the Xavier Institute Rec Room, the lights flickered, and dozens of scared whispers from students who remembered the prior attacks on the mansion filled the air with palpable fear.

Kitty Pryde moved alongside Bobby 'Iceman' Drake, trying to contain her fear. "Bobby?"

Bobby turned to look at her, and she knew he felt it too. "Something's wrong."

In a spare bedroom in the school's left wing, Irene 'Destiny' Adler opened her opal eyes.

"They're here"

Logan prepped himself for battle as the intruders came into focus. Whether tanks, or helicopters, or-

Logan's eyes widened as none of the above stepped forward. "Holy sh-"

The SENTINELS were miles high, gigantic metal humanoid robots with tentacles extending from their backs. Three of them, enormous and imposing, were coming straight for the school.

Logan growled and unsheathed his adamantium claws with a characteristic 'snikt.' "Oh not this place bub. Not again, not here."

He lept towards the SENTINELS. A snaking tentacle shot out to push him aside and he dodged just in time to escape it. The tentacles instead hit one of the graves, causing it to partially crack.

Logan saw red. "No!" Allowing the rage to guide him he ran at the invaders.

"We're under attack," Ororo stated blankly. "So much for only attacking criminal mutants."

"Unless they think there's a criminal mutant here," Hank said shakily.

Ororo's mind flashed back to the three new women. "Oh no. Rogue."

Rogue burst through the door to the new mutants room, gasping for breath.

"There's an attack you need to come quickly-"

The room was empty.

Rogue stepped forward, confused. "Where the hell-"

Her scream was muffled as a hand came over her mouth from behind.

"Calm down," Carol Danvers said steadily. "It's SENTINELS, but they're only here for the two new mutants. They're not who they say they are, come on."

Logan had given into the rage, and was attacking the SENTINELS like an angry dog attacking a car. He was so caught up in it that it took him minutes to recognized the voice calling his name.

"Logan. Logan!"

Logan turned to Ororo. "I could use some help over here!"

"They're not here for us!" Ororo explained at a yell. "They're here for the other two mutants, get inside and get the kids out."

Logan just growled. "Then they could have knocked and asked nicely."

"Logan!"

The SENTINELS animatronic voice echoed across the grounds. "Stand down mutant, and you will not be harmed."

Inside the school, Bobby and Kitty hustled a stream of younger students through the secret exit they had used in the last attack on the mansion.

"This feels like a repeat," Bobby muttered under his breath.

Kitty made sure all of the kids got through, before stopping to look back.

"Bobby?"

Bobby shook his head. "I have to find Rogue."

Kitty's throat tightened. "She can take care of herself."

"No she can't."

Rogue followed Carol at a run down one of the school's many hallways.

Carol seemed able to speak without huffing somehow as she said, "We need to get the two mutant criminals they want and bring them out to the SENTINELS."

Rogue, gasping, could not say the same. "What did they do?"

Carol shook her head. "I don't know, we just need to get them out there-"

Her sharp eyes detected movement down a side hall.

Carol immediately changed gears. "This way!"

"Wait!"

"Stand down mutant civilian."

Logan sneered in defiance at the huge machine. "Or what?"

"We have to find Carol," Hank shouted, "she should know how to stop this."

Ororo turned to him. "How does she-"

A red light shot out from the SENTINEL'S hand, sending out a sound beam that echoed over the whole campus. Ororo, Logan, and Hank dropped to their knees in agony, desperately covering their ears.

The mutant students stumbling out of the screamed as the beam crossed over them. Kitty gasped, sure her ears were bleeding. "Bobby," she moaned.

Inside the school Bobby stopped mid run, covering his ears and crashing into the wall as the beam scanned over him.

"What-"

Rogue's sentence froze on her tongue as she and Carol were hit by the beam, and lent their cries to those of the other mutants.

As Mystique and Destiny screamed at the beam running through them, the noise halted. It had found it's target.

"Mutant target located," said the SENTINEL'S flat voice.

"Like HELL!" Logan growled, turning to face the mechanical monsters before them.

"Mutant civilian resists," says the lead SENTINEL. "Mutant civilian becomes mutant criminal."

Four tentacles from the head SENTINEL streaked down towards Logan.

Ororo's eyes went white and the skies darkened as a streak of lightning hit the tentacles. Shivering with the electricity, the tentacles fall back.

"Good work-" Logan began. "You-"

"Look out!" Hank cried, as the SENTINEL began to topple. Ororo quickly raised the winds to pull all three X-Men away from danger as the SENTINEL shook the entire school with the force of it's fall.

The two remaining SENTINELS stood silent for a split second. Then-

"New mutant targets acquired."

"This way," Carol urged, grabbing Rogue's arm and pulling her along.

"Wait no, we have to get out!" Rogue tried to pull back by was no match against Carol's strength.

Carol kicked down the door and immediately whipped out her gun. "Federal officer, stand down."

Rogue's full vision was blocked by Carol. "What is going on?"

Destiny focused her opal eyes on Carol.

"It's her?" Rogue demanded.

Carol gestured with her gun to the right. "And that one."

Turning, Rogue gasped. "Bobby!"

A hallway over, Bobby froze, hearing Rogue's voice.

"Rogue?"

Ororo flew quickly to the side, dodging a flying tentacle from one of the two remaining SENTINELS. Raising her hands she called down the winds, forcing the equivalent of a category four hurricane at the machine.

Below, Logan leaped and dodged flying tentacles, looking for an opening to slam his adamantium into one and pin it down.

"No, no, stand down!" Hank yelled at the top of his voice. "These are not the mutants you want-"

Logan slammed his claws down into a tentacle, screaming with the pain. "Guess we're on the list now."

"We have to find the mutants they're looking for and hand them over!" Hank said.

Logan ripped his claws out of the tentacle as it fell useless to the ground. "We are the mutants they want now."

"Bobby?"

"You are under arrest," Carol Danvers said, pulling out a badge emblazoned with S.H.I.E.L.D on it. "You have-"

"No, you've got it wrong!" Rogue tried to explain, moving towards 'Bobby.'

"No, stand back-" Carol demanded. Destiny began to move, and Carol fired a warning shot.

"Nobody move!" Carol ordered. Taking out a pair of handcuffs she moved towards 'Bobby again.'

Rogue rushed at the other woman. "No, you can't give him to them-"

"Rogue?"

Bobby turned, clearly able, now, to hear where her voice was coming from. He turned towards the open door.

"Ah!"

"Storm!"

Hit by a blast from one of the SENTINELS hands, Ororo fell from the skies. With a running leap, Hank caught her before she could break any bones.

Witnessing the fight from the edge of the school, Kitty gritted her teeth. She was an X-Man, damn it! She needed to help!

Her eyes widened, and she turned to Piotr 'Colossus' Rasputin. "I have an idea, can you cover me?"

Piotr nodded instantly. "Let's go."

Logan dodged a blast from one of the SENTINELS, only to be finally grabbed by one of their tentacles.

"Logan!" Ororo cried, through the pain in her whole body. She raised an arm and lightning crackled in the sky.

"No!" Hank warned, holding her down. "You electrocute that thing you'll kill him."

Kitty and Colossus ran up, panting. "I have an idea," Kitty announced. "If you can get me up there I can get in and try to make it stop from the inside out."

"No, out of the question, it's too dangerous," Ororo cut off instantly.

Kitty nearly hissed. "You got any better ideas?"

Rogue shook her head, her voice high and angry, trying to make the woman understand. "You don't know what you're doing."

'Bobby' glanced over at Destiny. "Rogue I don't know what this is, who are these people?"

Carol Danvers shook her head sharply. "You're not fooling anybody," she announced, grabbing 'Bobby's' arm from behind.

"No, let go of him!" Rogue demanded, and grabbed for Carol's gun. Carol quickly snatched Rogue's wrist and applied her strength.

Rogue shrieked in pain. "No, stop it."

"You don't understand what's going on," Carol stated. "I need you to-"

Suddenly both women stiffened. Rogue's eyes, wide from pain, now expanded even further with horror as Carol's skin began to vein out as she was drained into Rogue.

"What the hell are you doing?" Carol yelled, tightening her grip on Rogue.

"No, stop, let go of me!" Rogue begged.

Bobby, just outside, burst into the room to witness Rogue struggling to free herself from a tall blonde woman who refused to let go. "No, you have to let go!" Bobby tried to warn.

But Carol's grip only grew tighter as she grew whiter, the veins practically popping out of her skin. In agony, Rogue shrieked, a high, eldritch sound.

The battle with the SENTINELS paused for a moment at the sound of the scream, even the SENTINELS tentacles turning towards the noise.

"No!"Logan's heart raced at Rogue's cry, and he struggled harder against his bonds.

Shoving down the terror and worry in the back of her throat for Rogue, Ororo grabbed the opportunity. "Now is our chance!"

The SENTINELS began moving again, and the X-Men went into action.

Colossus ran at the SENTINELS, banging aside their tentacles with his own metal body.

Hank hoisted up the tiny Kitty. "Ready when you are Storm."

Ororo nodded. "Now!"

Hank swung Kitty around like a rag doll and launched her towards the SENTINEL. Concentrating, Ororo gestured with her arms, using the winds to propel Kitty the rest of the way. Closing her eyes and praying, Kitty accessed her mutation and dove into the head of the SENTINEL.

The SENTINEL shuddered, and with a flurry of sound and sparks, began to topple.

"Look out!" cried Hank.

Grabbing Ororo, Hank ran them backwards fast, the SENTINEL hitting the ground in the exact place they had been just seconds before they escape.

Ororo gasped for breath, before turning back. "Logan!"

Logan lay on the ground in one of the SENTINELS now useless tentacles, unmoving.

Hank carried her quickly over to kneel beside her fellow teacher. "Logan!"

Kitty phased out of the SENTINEL. "Is he alright?"

Logan groaned, stirring, and Ororo sighed in relief. "Yes, he's alright."

Logan winced. "Speak for yourself."

: "Colossus, help me get this off of him," Ororo requested, and the large X-Man pulled the tentacles away from Logan's body.

"Thanks Tin Man," Logan acknowledged. "Wait, Rogue, where's Rogue?"

Rogue slowly, brokenly detached her hand from the lifeless grip of Carol Danvers, before turning to look at 'Bobby.'

"Bobby?"

"Rogue?"

Rogue whirled around to see Bobby in the doorway, and turned back just in time to see Mystique revert to her natural form.

With a wide grin, the reptilian mutant bounded across the room, grabbed Destiny by the waist and launched both out the open window.

"No!" Rogue screamed, moving after them. "No-"

She stumbled, stumbled upon the dead body of Carol Danvers and the realization of what she had done suddenly hit her.

"Rogue what...what happened?"

"Don't touch me!"

"Rogue-"

"Don't touch me!" Rogue screamed again at the top of her lungs.

At a run, Hank, Ororo, and Logan entered the room.

"Carol!" Hank exclaimed, rushing to her side. "She's non-responsive."

"It was Mystique," Bobby said hurriedly. "She was right here, this woman tried to stop her, and Rogue-"

Logan moved cautiously towards Rogue. "Kid?"

Rogue was shaking her eyes, eyes unfocused.

"Kid?" Logan said louder. He took another step towards her, and she snapped to her feet. "Stay away from me!"

Ororo's voice was calm, soothing. "Honey, we have to figure out-"

Hank interrupted. "We need to get Carol to the infirmary."

Logan took another step towards Rogue. "Kid it's okay-"

"I said stay away!"

Logan went flying across the room and hit the opposite wall, hard. Rogue gasped, looking down at her hands, the hands that were now filled with stolen strength.

She stood for just a moment longer before fleeing at breakneck speed.

Logan tried to lift himself. "Rogue-"

"Carol's the one we need to help right now," Hank reminded.

Logan whirled on him. "What, you mean the one who was for those things, those SENTINELS, that just tried to kill us-"

Hank's voice rose in response. "They tried to kill you because you attacked them-"

"They were coming here looking for a fight, it's their fault they found one-"

"And now Carol is in a coma!" Hank roared. "If we don't get Carol to the infirmary now she will be dead. I can detect no pulse or heartbeat."

Bobby's hands trembled. "Rogue killed her. I saw."

Ororo turned to him. "Bobby-"

Hank rose slowly. "I fear our young friend may be right."

Logan shook his head, defiant. "No, Rogue would never do that."

"Her powers came back," Bobby supplied. "I...I saw. Mystique was imitating me. Carol grabbed Rogue and-"

There was silence in the room. Ororo finally broke it. "The cure is temporary then."

Hank shuddered. "If that is the case then we have quite a problem on our hands."

Logan growled, animalistic. "Understate it a little more why don'cha Furball?"

The mutants cowering underground in the New York sewers gathered together to watch as the very air rippled, shaking and twisting until a person, a mutant, a man with grey skin and blue lips stepped out.

"Who are you?" asked the underground leader.

The mutant tilted his head to the side. "Many things."

Some of the mutants snorted. They had seen mutants who thought they were powerful, mysterious, and important before. They were unimpressed.

The leader quieted them with a hand gesture. "If you've come here for protection you're welcome if you're willing to work with us. First rule is not to draw attention to yourself."

Apocalypse looked around slowly. "You hide down here?"

Their leader nodded. "This is a safe place for mutants who-"

Apocalypse cut him off with a whisper that demanded complete attention. "You cower from the world, refusing to adapt, to stretch your own abilities. You neither change for your surroundings, nor fix them to your own needs and desires. You cower."

The second in command stepped forward angrily. "Hey, if you don't like it-"

"The species grows stronger as the week are weeded out," Apocalypse said again. "The strongest survive."

Having had enough, the leader gestured for her crew to step forward. Apocalypse raised his arms, revealing bits of metal, wire, and what appeared to be computer chips implanted into his very skin. The air began to vibrate again, and the mutants before him were lifted, twitching and moaning, into the air.

Apocalypse grinned. "Only the strongest survive."

End of Act One


	2. Chapter 2

Act One: Part Two

Logan growled as they walked across the hospital hall. He had hated flying to this damn island, and he hated hospitals.

"Are you gonna tell us what they hell this is or are we gonna have to guess?"

Ororo ignored him, opening a door to her right and gesturing for Logan, Bobby, Kitty, Piotr and Hank to enter.

Moira MacTaggert nodded at Ororo, and gestured for the dark haired woman beside her to step forward. "Ororo, Logan, I'm glad you could come. This is Elizabeth Braddock."

Braddock shook first Ororo then Logan's hand. "He doing well, though we can't be sure it's safe to move him yet."

Logan frowned. He hated this cagey business. "And who is, 'him' exactly?"

Braddock raised a brow at Ororo. "You haven't told them?"

Now Logan was getting angry. "Told us what?"

"It's alright Logan," spoke a familiar voice from the bed in the center of the room. "Ororo needed to see with her own eyes to be able to believe it."

The man turned his head. His face was unfamiliar, but his smile, his voice, came through even under the other man's vocal chords.

Logan unsheathed his claws. "What the hell kind of a trick is this?"

"Logan-"

Logan ignored Ororo, and demanded louder, angrier. "What the hell is this?"

"Please," Professor Xavier's voice said, "let me explain. The mind is capable of many things the body cannot possibly achieve. I was able to move my consciousness into this body for a short while, because I have a little more work to do before I pass on."

He moved his eyes to Logan. "I know how hard this must be for all of you after what happened with Jean. But rest assured, I am here only for a short while, and only to give you what help I can."

Ororo's lip twitched. "That's supposed to be assuring? That's you're not...staying?"

The man who's face the Professor wore smiled. "My conscience itself is uncomfortable with my current arrangement. I am confident when our work is done you all can move on without me. And I regret I had to interrupt that process by being here now."

There was silence as Bobby, Kitty, Colossus and Hank all stared in wonder.

Logan could barely stand this. "Well, what is it? What is the thing that's so important to tell us?"

Closing his eyes for a moment, the Professor took a deep breath. "Not long before the...episode with Jean, I made mental contact with a being that I could not place. It's a mutant, or was at first, but has since become something far beyond anything I could ever imagine. Far beyond even Jean Grey at her height."

Logan clenched his fists.

"It's impossible to place, and incredibly ancient," the Professor continued. "Most mutants came about with the advent of the nuclear age, with some rare exceptions like yourself, Logan. But this is practically as old as the dawn of civilization. It seems to move in and out of time itself, making him almost impossible to track. But his thoughts are always clear. He seeks to purify our world to take us to the next stage of evolution."

"So like Magneto?" Bobby offered.

The Professor shook his head. "No, Eric's focus is on a world ruled by mutants by virtue of their being mutants. This being believes itself to be beyond mutants, and somehow intends to try and push mutants to this next stage. And eliminate those who don't reach it."

Logan frowned. "How?"

The Professor sighed. "I don't know."

Logan turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

"Logan!" Ororo demanded, following after him. "Logan, stop this-"

Logan rounded on her. "How do we know that's him? How do we know this isn't a trick of Magneto's that he hasn't found a psychic to impersonate the Professor, how-"

"Because, I know." Ororo said. If she was honest, she had known it for a while now.

Logan bared his teeth. "We've had the mansion attacked, Rogue is still missing, these SENTINELS are out there probably tracking us this second, and the only thing worse than the people we care about dying is how they don't stay dead."

Before Ororo could come up with an answer, Logan turned and stalked away.

Rogue stepped inside the Bourbon Street jazz club, situating herself in an empty chair and tried to look inconspicuous. She had wanted to go South, see New Orleans. Anything to distract her. She would move on then, see the whole country. Stay running. She should never have stopped.

Her eye was caught by the card flourishes displayed by the dealer at the central table in the room. The dealer was a handsome young man in a flowing coat and fedora hat, his shoulder length hair was left down, a cocky smile playing about his lips.

One of the disgruntled men at the table practically spat at him. "You plannin' on cheating us out of our money again, Gambit?"

The dealer, Gambit, kept his eyes on his cards. "Don't blame the dealer for you losin' fair and square." Then, playing up the moment, he met the man with his eyes. Rogue frowned and leaned in closer. She could almost have sworn- "Maybe the cards just don't like you, non?"

The other man leaned forward, lowering his voice to a carrying whisper. "I know what you are. Mutant."

Rogue swallowed, watching closer.

Gambit merely grinned wider. "Now what does that have to do with you losin'?"

Rogue's senses, keen from the touch of Wolverine, picked up the danger before Gambit did. "Look out!" She yelled, as her training took over and she moved forward to push the man with the knife away from Gambit. The hapless man flew across the room at merely a touch, slamming into the wall and going down like a rock.

Gambit laughed. "Well now. Seems like you have the same success with women as you do with the cards." He turned his charming smile to Rogue. "Now here's a pretty face I haven't seen yet, which is always somethin' special to me." His eyes blossomed with red fire, the rest turning a deep black. "Very special."

Rogue felt flustered at his words and his eyes, but was damned if she'd show it. "You don't want to do more than see," she said curtly. "And he was right: you did cheat, I saw you."

Gambit turned his head to the side, his eyes glittering. "Oh now chere-"

Off to the side there was a bit of movement. Gambit swiftly snatched up one of the tables playing cards and flung it with deadly accuracy into the barrel of the plastic gun the man across from him had been trying to aim. It exploded, throwing the man back against the tables.

Ignoring the flurry, Gambit rose with the grace of an acrobat to walk over to Rogue. "Does no one here know how to treat a lady?"

Rogue began to speak, to answer back, when she heard a familiar noise outside. "Sentinels," she breathed.

For the first time Gambit looked worried. "C'mon." He grabbed her arm and tried to pull. Rogue looked down at his hand. He couldn't move her.

"You gonna wait for them to catch you?" Gambit demanded.

"I haven't done anything wrong," Rogue stated.

Gambit looked at her with desperate eyes. "You think they care?"

The two mutants rushed out of the club just as two snaking tentacles smashed inside, sending the clubs patrons running.

Gambit led her down the twisting back alley streets before finally stopping up against a wall.

"I'm never goin' back no matter how many times they try to take me," Gambit snarled, his face a mask of defiance and fear.

"Back where?" Rogue questioned. Gambit turned to face her.

Snippets crossed her mind. A fight, pain, claws...

"You knew Logan," Rogue breathed.

Gambit frowned. "You a friend of his?"

Involuntarily, Rogue sniffed the air trying to catch his scent. "Yes."

Gambit raised a brow. "Is that your talent then, you can get into my head?"

Rogue looked away. "Something like that."

Gambit let his eyes drift over her body, frankly appraised, and gave a snake-charmed smile. "Strong too. I have an idea of how you could use that."

'"How you could use that you mean," she bit back sharply.

"Job will pay off for both of us if you join in," Gambit offered.

"Join in what?"

"Takin' away somethin' dangerous for us all. Technology that can control our powers. Some kind of inhibitor. I can get inside and get it out on my own, but it'd go a whole lot smoother with your strength on my side."

Rogue's throat tightened. She knew, she KNEW she shouldn't be fooled again, shouldn't believe it could help but..

"Plenty enough of a reward for both of us with you in," Gambit continued. "And we get to help our kind, so you can go on and feel noble about it too if you like." Gambit leaned his head back against the alley wall and let his eyes burn red and black. "And somethin' tells me you're as interested in this as I am."

Refusing to be taken in by his attempt to charm her, she sassed back: "Somethin' tells me you're not telling me everything. I've got a dozen voices in my head, includin' mine, and every single one of 'em is screamin' not to trust you."

Gambit put his hands over his heart dramatically. "Y' wound me, chere. You'd trust metal and programed destruction over a fellow mutant?"

"You're both here to steal somethin'," Rogue answered.

Gambit grinned. "Yes, but way I do it would be far more pleasure in it for you." A crash not to far away warned them that the SENTINELS were getting closer. Gambit turned swiftly back to her, and held out his hand. "So, you ready to take your chances with me?"

The air near the nuclear reactor rippled. The workers back away, unsure, as the grey skinned man appeared.

"Mutant broach of the facility!" screamed one worker, running for the officer in charge.

Apocalypse merely watched with something like detachment, as the humans marshaled their troops before him.

"Mutant stand down," ordered the leader, and a dozen plastic cure guns aimed at him.

Apocalypse let a small smile play around his mouth. "Pitiful."

He raised his arms, and as the chips and wire in them activated, the guns in the men's hands began to fall apart before their very eyes.

Apocalypse sighed. "Always the same."

Raising his arms again he concentrated, and the metal buildings holding the nuclear energy in began to shake, quiver and malfunction. Panicked, the humans fled while Apocalypse laughed.

When a SENTINEL stepped forward to challenge him, he at least paused, considering.

"Hostile mutant stand down," it ordered him.

Apocalypse frowned. "Mutant? Insulting."

Apocalypse raised his arms again, holding on even as the SENTINEL attempted to fight his control.

"Everything fights, even when it's futile," Apocalypse observed. "Interesting."

Slowly, slowly, the SENTINEL lowered it's arm.

Apocalypse nodded. "And now their weapons are mine."

With a twist of his hand he caused the SENTINEL to raise it's arm again: this time, aimed at the nuclear reactor.

"Fire."

The reactor exploded with the force of the blast, and Apocalypse bathed in it's fallout.

The edges of the air duct began to glow and smolder and finally exploded. Gambit climbed quietly out, standing to help Rogue after him.

"We go left up here, then right, then there's two guards," he whispered, and Rogue tried to suppress a shiver at his voice. "I'll take one if you take the other."

Rogue nodded and they snuck down the hallway, pressed against the wall.

"Wait," he said, holding up his hand. Taking a card from his coat he charged it and shot it expertly into the security camera above their heads before it could spot them. He then motioned Rogue along, pointing out the two guards standing watch at the next hall.

Gambit nodded and they crept up behind their prey. Gambit put his guard in a silent chokehold. With a swift glance to make sure Gambit didn't see, Rogue touched her skin to her guards face, her hand over his mouth to keep his cries in. Gambit lowered his guard to the ground and Rogue followed suit.

"Alright," Gambit grinned. "This here's the door. I can break the locks and open it partway, but if you'd use some of that powerful strength you got to do the rest of it, I'd be much obliged."

Rogue swallowed. "O-okay."

Gambit gave her another smile which she knew was meant to make her swoon, and leaned down to hotwire the door. His tools ran with his kinetic energy, as the door opened partway, not enough for either to enter.

He bowed for her to step forward, and Rogue hesitantly did so, placing herself between both panels. She drew a deep breath in and pushed. With hardly any effort, the door came apart.

Rogue turned back to look at Gambit who raised an eyebrow.

"That's a mighty fine gift you got there, chere."

Rogue's mouth tightened, and she stalked inside. "Let's go."

Gambit frowned, confused both at her offense and the fact that this woman wasn't exactly bowled over by his charm. "What, you don't like complements?"

Rogue turned back to him, determined to be all business. "So where did you say that collar was?"

Gambit nursed his pride for a moment before rebounding. "Right through here."

In the control room, Gyrich waited impatiently for the mutants arrival.

"Our sensors tell us the mutant is inside," said one of the operators.

Gyrich nodded. "Perfect then, right on schedule."

The operator then frowned. "Sir, there's another mutant down there with him."

"What?" Gyrich said, stepping forward to look closer at the screen. "Looks like our thief found a friend."

"You know what this thing looks like?" Rogue asked, as they searched what appeared to be some kind of lab.

Gambit's eyes ran over the room with the attention to detail of a master thief. "Some kind of collar."

Rogue glanced up at him before looking away. "Have you always been a thief?"

Gambit's lip twitched. "Most of my life. What about you, always been a Rogue?"

Rogue shrugged. "I guess-is this it?"

Gambit whirled to see Rogue holding a collar in her hand.

"That's it," he said grim faced.

Rogue's brow furrowed. "What is it?"

Gambit shook his head. "It's too easy."

"Yes indeed Mr. LeBeau."

Both mutants whirled around as Gyrich entered, flanked by half a dozen soldiers.

"I thought you said you took out the cameras?" Rogue hissed at Gambit.

"I did!"

"Oh, please don't take this as an affront to your skills Mr. LeBeau," Gyrich said magnanimously. "We were already expecting you."

With a smile like a cat licking cream, Gyrich moved aside to allow another man to step forward.

Gambit stumbled back a little, stunned. "Henri?"

"Hello Little Brother," greeted Henri LeBeau.

Henri what the hell is goin' on here?" Gambit demanded, his Cajun accent thickening.

"Sorry little brother," Henri said, shaking his long hair. "We can't have a mutant in the guild."

"Haven't seemed to mind it all this time when I was so damn useful to you," Gambit snarled.

"Oh don't worry about that Mr. LeBeau," Gyrich put in. "We've got plenty of uses lined up for you."

Gambit's eyes grew dangerously red and he reached for a card. "Oh, I think I've had enough of people usin' me last me a whole lifetime."

Gyrich jerked his head at his soldiers. "Take them."

Gambit tossed the card, blowing away three guards. They fired at him, and he back flipped and dodged with the ease of an acrobat, sliding around to kick the knees out from one of the guards.

Rogue was surrounded. Strategizing as Wolverine had taught her, she waited for a guard to get close to her, and kicked him, the force almost sending him THROUGH the wall.

Gyrich nodded approvingly. "Very nice."

Gambit sent another card flying, hitting the barrel of one of the guards guns, causing it to blow up in his hands. Using a few seconds he had he retrieved his bo staff from the pack he had brought, and whipped it around to knock aside another four guards.

A guard behind Rogue reached out to grab her neck and gasped as she began to drain him. The other guards around her pulled back in shock as Gyrich, Henri, and Gambit turned to watch.

"What in the hell," Gambit breathed.

Rogue pushed the man off of her and he fell useless to the ground. For a split second she met Gambit's red eyes.

"Let's hurry this up, I have somewhere to be," Gyrich said to the man beside him. The man nodded and pressed a button on the device in his hand. The same beam that had immobilized her before hurt Rogue just as much this time, and she screamed and fell to her knees.

Gyrich motioned for his guards to bind Gambit while he was down, but Gyrich took it upon himself to slip the collar around Gambit's neck, where it glowed, draining the red from his eyes and the energy from his hands.

"Wonderful little contraption isn't it?" Gyrich said to him. "Keeps your mutant abilities under control, where you can't hurt anybody."

Gambit spat at him, then turned on his brother. "There's a special place in hell for those that betray they own Guild brothers."

"You the one born with devil eyes, Remy, which is why you're own flesh and blood didn't want you," Henri answered back. "What kind of place you think is waitin' for you?"

"What do you want with us?" Rogue demanded loudly. Her X-Men pride wouldn't allow her to take this lying down.

Gyrich turned his attention to her, as the guards had cautiously slipped a collar around her neck but were hesitant to touch her.

"Now you I didn't expect," he said, walking up to her. "Another mutant thief?"

"No I'm an-," Rogue began and then realized she couldn't call herself an X-Man now. "On my own."

"Let her go, she was just followin' me," Gambit spoke up.

Gyrich spread his arms apart theatrically. "Oh, we have a gentleman here. But I think the lady's capable of making her own choices about her crimes."

Henri Lebeau snorted. "My brother has a way of makin' women do what he wants."

"Does he now?"

"I know who you are," Rogue said, showing defiance so she wouldn't show fear. "And I know you didn't just make those SENTINELS to protect anybody. They attacked a school tryin' to get at other mutants, hurtin' innocent people."

Gyrich raised a brow.: "Maybe they weren't so innocent."

"Just because you hate mutants-"

"Oh, no no no, you mistake me very much. I don't hate mutants." Gyrich shook his head. "You're all far to useful for me to hate you."

With a smile he turned to his guards.

"Take them to Genosha."

End of Act Two


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Feedback is what keeps me alive and working, so be darlings and leave some below, and I shall continue to write this story. PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK PLEASE!

Scene Three

Inside the Genoshan headquarters the computer known as Master Mode was working double time to program new SENTINELS.

Dr. Trask hurried in, ignoring the computer, speaking anxiously with the lieutenant who had just given his report.

"Does anyone else know about this?" Trask questioned.

: "No sir, the President's ordered a preliminary investigation into what caused the explosion, but-"

"But the SENTINEL was at the scene?" Trask interrupted.

"No sir, not when we arrived. It had moved."

Trask pulled back. "How, who moved it?"

"We...we don't know sir."

"Damn it," Trask swore, turning to the computer. "Master Mode, respond."

"Responsive," answered the computer.

"Locate SENTINEL 15324."

"Locating." A map on the screen pinpointed the rogue SENTINEL. "Located."

Trask nodded. "Okay, now shut it down."

"Negative," Master Mode answered.

Trask was taken aback. "What?"

"SENTINEL 15324 has been removed from the mainframe computer and given new programming," answered Master Mode.

"How the hell is that possible," Trask whispered to himself, "how the hell-Master Mode, can you get other SENTINELS in the area to take out SENTINEL 15324?"

"Negative. SENTINELS do not fire on other SENTINELS."

Trask clenched his fists. "Damnit you need to get this under control. If mutants can manage to circumvent our technology then we lose our only edge."

He held his head, trying to focus, talking to himself. "You need to figure this out, Trask. Figure it out fast, and fix it faster because if the mutants on this island can figure out how to get around our technology then we've got one hell of a rebellion on our hands, and they won't stop at just us. They'll go after everyone, all the humans, to make sure it doesn't happen again. It'll be a massacre. We have to maintain control."

Nervously, his assistant approached him. "Sir?"

"Don't-" Trask shouted, then calmed himself. "Not now."

"Sir, there's an incoming shipment of new mutants arriving, we need to know where to assign them."

Trask mentally groaned. "Yeah, just-just send me copies of their files and I'll find out where we need them."

The assistant nodded, and Trask turned back to stare darkly at the computer screen.

The convoy plane to Genosha was silent, as Rogue and Gambit sat side by side without speaking, and the other three mutants included a man with three eyes, all angry, a woman who refused to look up, and a man in a trench coat and hat whose face was turned away.

Rogue noticed after a moment that Gambit was staring at her.

"What?"

Gambit eyed her up. "You can knock a man out with just a touch?"

Rogue swallowed. "Yes."

"That's a powerful weapon there you didn't tell me about," he said steadily. "Were you plannin' on usin' it against me?"

"No!" Rogue said quickly. "Like I want your memories in my head."

Gambit tilted his head to the side. "But you did want the collar, non?"

"Yes."

He smiled his snake-charmer smile again. "And how were you plannin' on gettin' it out of me?" His eyes gleamed red and Rogue stared mesmerized for a moment-but only a moment.

"You can stop tryin' to charm me now," she said, leaning in. "It don't work on me, and I don't have anythin' you want."

Gambit seemed almost pleased she had foiled his power. "You got some mighty nice talents I never knew about. Just wonderin' what other gifts you got in store."

"It's not a gift, it's a-"

"Curse?"

The man in the hat turned, revealing the aged face of Magneto. "The curse of poison touch, yes. I'm surprised you didn't get the cure."

"I did," Rogue said, nastily. This man had tried to kill her, and those she loved. She wasn't Charles and she didn't like him.

"Ah yes, and it wasn't quite as effective as you'd hoped?" Magneto said delicately, and then gave a wan smile. "Things designed to change your very nature never are. You can only hide so long before they come for you. And they always do. No matter your weaknesses, to them you are always a threat that must be taken out."

Rogue snorted. "Clearly you haven't changed."

"Neither have the times, my dear." He looked around the plane, his face growing grim. "I've been on this trip before, and I know where it ends.

Gyrich stood behind a curtain, prepping to go on stage as his assistant fixed him with a microphone.

"Good crowd out there tonight."

Gyrich scoffed. "Good crowd is an understatement, we've got representatives from fifty different countries out there willing to snap up what we're selling." He brushed her off. "All right, okay, showtime."

Gyrich strode onto the stage to applause. "Please, please. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad you all could be here tonight. As you well know, the mutant phenomenon has caused untold damage to our planet, in terms of money, infrastructure, and most importantly human lives. But with with GenoCorp's new technology, this devastation can not only end, but be of profit to our own society."

Gyrich looked to the right and nodded, and a curtain was pulled up, revealing three mutants bound in collars.

"These three mutants possess enough firepower to take down an entire nation of people. One can create an avalanche with a stamp of his foot. One of them can put any man or woman in her power with the pheromones she secrets. And the littlest member can cause the blood vessels in your body to explode with a sharp whistle."

There was nervous rustling among the crowds.

"Please, don't be alarmed." Gyrich lifted up his hand held device. "This device and the accompanying collar contain these impulses, controlling them, harnessing them, and placing them in your hands."

He motioned for two guards to bring the pheromone mutant forward. The two men were in the process of moving her when she began secreting, causing them to let her go, looking dazed.

Gyrich pressed a button on the device and the collar shocked the mutant, and her power faltered. .

"As you see, this technology enables you to control the mutants powers, prevent them from using them in dangerous, destructive ways, and allowing you to modulate their use to your own purposes. Ladies and gentlemen, this technology is the key to the human population not only surviving the mutant plague, but flourishing on it."

The crowd cheered and clapped, and Gyrich beamed.

"Now, if you please we will start the bidding."

The metal door slid open, allowed Rogue to step out. She knew Gambit was beside her cell, and Magento somewhere close. And all around her were dozens of mutants.

"Good morning," the loudspeaker announced. "Today is bright and sunny with partial clouds on Genosha. Follow the work captains now opening your rooms outside to begin."

Rogue exited her cell with the rest of the mutants.

The guard at the front carried the same device in his hand that Gyrich had held. "Form a line."

The mutants slowly, sullenly formed a line.

"Now move forward-"

A mutant with what appeared to be scars all over his body bared a pair of fangs and leapt at the work captain. The captain pressed a button on the device, and the collard caused the mutant to seized, and fall back. The captain gestured for two guards beside him to pick up the unconscious mutant.

"Now if you will all follow me."

Outside, Rogue felt rage building up inside her as she stared around the camp. Mutants were using their powers to build some kind of damn, but all seemed to be in pain, and when a guard spotted someone who appeared about to resist, the collar pushed them back down.

"You four, over here."

Rogue was put in the group that contained Gambit, Magneto and one other mutant.

The work captain was still speaking. "Now, we're just going to try and get some work done here today. You'll be allowed to use your abilities to a small degree to help you. Don't try anything and you'll be unharmed. Do try attacking me, and I press this button and you'll be put in extreme pain."

"Ah, so work will set us free?" Magento said icily.

The work captain frowned, not understanding the reference. "You'll raise this metal bar into the car behind us."

Magneto smiled frostily. "I have no intention of playing this game once more. I've been in this place before, and never again will I obey such orders."

The mutants around began to whisper, as Magneto's name and words travelled.

The work captain grimaced at the chatter. "Suit yourself." He hit the button, causing Magneto to cry out and fall to his knees.

"Are you going to cooperate now?"

Magneto responded by reaching an arm forward, attempting to use his powers to drag the device from the captain's hand, only to be hit with another collar induced seizure.

Gambit slyly pulled Rogue closer to him. "Seems like he's almost breaking through with his power."

Rogue shook her head "It's not enough."

"Not enough for one mutant's powers maybe," Gambit whispered. "But maybe a mutant with more than just _their_ powers could do it."

"What are you talking about?"

"This old timer's givin' us a distraction, and we gotta use it now. Once you have it remember, the more you move the more energy you'll have, and you gotta use it to break your collar and that thing the Captain's got fast."

Magento tried to stand up and was shocked again.

Rogue's eyes widened. "No, you are not-"

Gambit's eyes burned red. "Try not to hate the memories too much."

Quickly, smothering further reply, Gambit kissed her. Rogue's eyes widened in shock but he pulled her closer, kissing her deeply, hard, making the drain swifter.

"Hey!"

Rogue pushed Gambit off her, and he fell to the ground, gasping. Looking down at her hands, she could see and feel the kinetic energy running along her fingers.

Gambit, still gasping, choked out, "The collar."

Understanding, Rogue reached up around her neck and placed her hands around the collar. With her strength, doubled by the strength of her own mutation and now Gambit's was able to defy the collar's power and rip it off. It charged instantly in her hand, and she threw it at the work captain. It exploded, knocking him off his feet.

Magneto used the opportunity to draw the device into his hands and smash it with his powers.

Raising his arms he caused all of the collars on the surrounding mutants to fly off, leaving them free.

The terrified guards, tried to sneak away, but were rounded upon by angry mutants. Then, the tell tale sound of heavy feet alerted them of the coming of the SENTINELS.

"Mutant rebellion, north side of island."

Magneto steeled himself. "And now we rise."

End of Scene


	4. Chapter 4

Act Four

"What the hell are they doin'?" Logan whispered.

"Shh," Ororo hissed, making a face at him.

"What?" Logan asked, quieter.

_I am using my connection to Psylocke to try and find out what Apocalypse has planned, _Xavier's voice inside Logan's mind explained. Logan glared, stony-eyed, at the bed where the body that housed Charles Xavier lay, Psylocke's hands on his head, both of their eyes closed in concentration. Logan ground his teeth.

_Care to speed up the process there, Chuck? _

Logan was almost positive he could hear a smile in the old man's voice. _If we want him to realize what we're do-_

Logan's mind was assaulted by impossibly clear, violently foreign images. A young, grey skinned boy in the desert, at an Egyptian palace, watching the rule of Pharaoh after Pharaoh crumble, while he barely aged a day. Weaving through the rise and fall of empires, searching, searching...searching for others of his kind.

The rise of machines, the dawn of a new age: the grey skinned man found new weapons, new technologies, new ways to harness more power than anyone should possess.

Disdain. Hatred. Irritation. Searching for others of his kind and finding no match, not even among the mutants that arose with the nuclear age.

Determination. A will. A plan: a plan for evolution, gleaned from years of experience, ages of knowledge. A change. A virus. A plague.

An island. A-

"_Logan_!"

Logan grunted as he hit the wall, thrown by the force of Apocalypse casting him out of his mind.

"Are you alright, what happened?" Kitty came down to kneel beside him.

"Oh God," said the Professor's voice. "I had not imagined this."

"What? WHAT?" Ororo demanded, louder.

"Apocalypse plans to live up to his name," Psylocke's cool British voice cut through the air. "He wants to start a plague that will _force_ mutation forward."

"Oh like Magneto did before," Bobby said, stiffening.

"Not like this," Xavier said. "This will wipe out all humans and any mutants who's bodies cannot upgrade fast enough."

"We need to get to Washington," Hank insisted. "Tell the President, set up some kind of epidemic prevention-"

"We have no idea where it will start, or how to fight it," Moira put in. "We don't know-"

"An island," Logan croaked.

"What?" Psylocke turned to him.

"I saw," Logan said, standing up with another grunt. "He's headed to an island. He may have a base there, or a power source, or-"

"Mutants," Xavier spoke out. "He's seeking out mutants. He craves followers, and he cannot do this task alone."

"Genosha," Hank breathed. "It has to be, it's the only place with that many mutants together."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Logan said. "Let's go!"

"Wait, we need some kind of plan," Ororo said, looking to the hospital bed. "Professor-"

The lips were another man's, but the smile was pure Charles Xavier. "I am afraid that is as much of a glimpse into Apocalypse's mind as we are going to get. At the moment, I believe the best plan of action is to follow Wolverine." His amusement at the irony was apparent in his voice.

"I'll be going with you," Psylocke said imperiously. "If we're going to have an Apocalypse, I plan to spend it making some use of myself."

"Well then," Logan said. "If I'm team leader let's get movin', I hate standin' around."

The mutants of Genosha were in full rebellion, fighting off a hoard of SENTINELS. Magneto led the charge as SENTINEL after SENTINEL fell under an onslaught of furious, free mutants, crushing their screaming human captors as they toppled.

Trask clenched his fists as he watched the chaos from the many computer screens around him.

"Sir," said a soldier, his voice trembling. "Sir the mutants are in-"

"I can see that!" Trask snarled.

"Well what do you want us to do-"

"Whatever you do keep them from getting inside," Trask demanded. "You hear me? If they get to the mainframe we are done for, and I don't just mean the people on the island-I mean everyone, everywhere."

The mutants outside cheered as the final SENTINEL toppled, signaling the end of their rebellion. Rogue pushed her way through the crowds to Gambit's side, trying to help the coughing mutant stand.

Magneto's voice rang out above the din. "My brothers and sisters. The day is ours. This place is ours. They wanted to tame us, to crush us, but we will not be exterminated or oppressed."

Rogue ignored the speech, half supporting a gasping Gambit. "I could have killed you!"

Even through the pain, Gambit flashed her his devil-may-care smile. "Was worth it."

Both looked over as the crowds turned to follow Magneto, who was leading them towards the main building on the island. The old survivor smiled. "And now we can make our own world."

Trask was frantically trying to give commands to Master Mode. "If we can send out a beam from the mainframe computer it should be enough to wipe all the mutants out. If we-"

The soldiers guarding Trask whirled as the very air behind him rippled. When it revealed three mutants they fired.

Their bullets were quickly deflected back at them, killing them all instantly.

Trask, his entire body shaking, turned to face a smiling grey mutant.

Apocalypse shook his head. "No. Your time is over."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

"My brothers," Magneto spoke, his voice carrying over the crowds of mutants. "Now is our time. They've tried to control us, to cure us, to use us. Now we-"

Magneto paused as above him, the telltale sound of the Blackbird whizzed ahead.

"Of course," he muttered with a half raised brow. "Always ready to interrupt the performances."

"Computer."

Master Mode's screen brightened as Apocalypse held out a hand on which a series of metal carvings glowed.

"Activate the link to any remaining SENTINELS."

"Link...activated," Master Mode said slowly.

Apocalypse turned and nodded to Mystique, who stepped out from the shadows holding a vial filled with a dark swirling liquid. After another nod from Apocalypse, she inserted it into one of the computer's many outlets.

"New Agent...accepted."

Apocalypse smiled. "Good. Now let's see which of our lowborn brothers can rise up."

Mystique glanced over at Destiny, who simply widened her eyes in warning, and turned back to the computer screen.

The screen showed the landscape of Genosha, and the advancing army of newly freed mutants led by Magneto.

"Release the virus," Apocalypse ordered, his hand glowing again.

"New Agent...activated."

"We're coming in for a landing," Storm stated, piloting the Blackbird downwards.

"No!" Psylocke said suddenly. "No, stay off the ground."

"Why?" Storm demanded.

"Bobby, is that Rogue down there?" Colossus pointed.

Bobby stole a brief look at Kitty before looking out the window. "It is, it's her."

"Logan-" Storm began.

"Lower the jet," Logan demanded.

"No," Psylocke stated again. "We can't land yet."

"Why the hell not, Crumpet?" Logan growled.

"It isn't safe, I can sense it," Psylocke said coldly, standing up to the feral Canadian without budging an inch.

"Storm, lower the jet," Logan snarled.

"No!" Psylocke snapped, eyes suddenly gleaming purple. Storm jerked the jet back up.

"Stop it!" Logan unsheathed his claws and ran at her.

Psylocke's hands gleamed with amethyst light and with uncanny speed she twisted away from Logan's claws, kicking his throat and causing him to choke, before plunging the sharp purple light into his head and letting him drop to the floor.

When Beast growled she pivoted effortlessly into another fighting stance, angling the ethereal violet blades at him.

"What the hell did you do to him?" Bobby demanded.

"Psychic shock, he'll be fine in a few seconds," Psylocke explained. "It isn't safe to land now-"

She heard the roar from behind her too late as Wolverine tackled her. She recovered quickly, flipping him over his head.

"_Stop."_

Everyone froze at the Professor's voice in their mind.

"_Psylocke is correct,"_ the Professor's voice cemented. "_There is something very wrong happening on the ground."_

"Wait," Rogue said, pausing, supporting Gambit's weight. "There's something wrong."

"If you wish to wait for your precious X-Men brethren to pick you up," Magneto's voice echoed from the front of the moving mass. "Feel free to do so."

"No, no!" Rogue yelled louder. "There's...there's somethin' else wrong out there!"

"My dear, if you really mean to-"

Magneto himself paused as a hissing sound filled the air around them.

"It's the SENTINELS!" cried the young Japanese mutant near the head of the party. "They're waking up again!"

He raised his hands and threw out a gleaming shot of radioactive energy at one of the fallen SENTINELS, causing it to explode.

The hissing sound only accelerated, with a number of the mutants dropping to their knees as if unable to breathe. Their mutant powers began to manifest all around them, then to fail. Sunfire raised his arms to obliterate another SENTINEL and found himself unable to control the power building inside of him, his radioactive energy consuming him, his skin glowing.

With widened eyes he whirled to stare at the rest of the group: and then melted for all to see.

"It's a new attack!" Magneto proclaimed. He flung out his hands, using his power to toss the remaining SENTINELS as far away from their crowd as possible.

"Chere," coughed Gambit, standing up painfully, but looking stronger. "You go on ahead and run now."

"And leave you here, weak as a kitten?" Rogue said, disgustedly. "Not on your life."

"This ain't no time to play the hero," Gambit growled.

"Maybe not for you," Rogue answered. "But I do on the regular."

Pivoting around she ran and leapt onto a SENTINEL, and with a swift roundhouse strengthened by her new powers, decapitated it.

"See," she said, jumping back down. "I-"

The air all around them rippled. Most of the mutants by now had fallen, or were writhing in pain as their own powers turned on them. Magneto was still trying to force the SENTINELS away from him where they couldn't release the sinister, silent gas that was destroying them from within.

"Enough," said a voice. Rogue and Gambit turned to watch Magneto disappear through a rippling of the air.

"Rogue-"

Before he could finish, Gambit disappeared before Rogue's very eyes. She had only begun to scream when she herself was taken.

The Blackbird landed smoothly, and the door hissed open.

"How do we know if it's safe?" Storm asked.

Psylocke's eyes gleamed purple. "It is safe. Whatever was here has dissipated. It's done it's job."

"What job is that?" Logan said, as their group stepped outside.

"This job," Psylocke answered, as they rounded the plane. Storm gasped.

"Oh my good Lord," Beast breathed.

The bodies of hundreds of mutants littered the ground. Ripped apart, burned, contorted, they had all died gruesome deaths.

"It's...it's as if their powers turned on them," Kitty said weakly.

"Rogue?" Logan shouted out, running through the sea of bodies. "Rogue?"

Psylocke leaned down to examine one of the fallen mutants with Beast.

"It's as if their powers suddenly expanded beyond their control," Beast observed. "And it killed them."

"Damn it!"

Storm raised enough wing to fly over to the angry Canadian. "Logan?"

"She's not here," he growled. "I could smell her but her scent just-ends right here."

Storm blinked, eyes blankly staring. "Then she's..."

The Wolverine rounded on her, his eyes mad and furious, and she tempered her words. "Not one of the bodies."

Logan released his claws. "I say it's time we went and had a chat with Mr. Doomsday himself."


	6. Chapter 6

Act Six

Rogue came too on the floor of a room filled with screens.

"And what exactly do you plan to do, brother?" That was Magneto's voice.

"Brother?" This voice was cold and hard. "Yes...I suppose if you survived you are a kind of brother."

"Survived?" Magneto's voice again. Rogue forced her eyes open.

"Yes." The second speaker, she could now see, was a grey skinned mutant covered in some kind of computer implants.

"Right on his skin," she breathed.

"Survived the test," Apocalypse went on. "Survived the plague that will sweep away the weak, and let the strong step forward. Survive the winnowing that will move us beyond mutants and into gods."

Apocalypse gestured and she felt sick. He was pointing at the screen that showed the hundreds of dead mutants.

"So this was your doing," Magneto's voice was a soft rumble. "Killing your fellow mutants."

"Fellow?" Apocalypse's laugh was harsh and long. "No. I am as far beyond mutants as mutants are beyond humans. This is the winnowing. Where the weak are culled from the strong, and only the strong survive."

"You-" Magneto trembled, and faltered, gripping the metal table beside him.

"Perhaps you have not survived after all," Apocalypse said, eyes narrowing.

Rogue forced herself to her feet and ran at the mass murderer.

Apocalypse tossed her back telekinetically with a lazy flick of his finger. "So this one also survived. You were right then," he said, to the blue mutant that stepped forward.

"Mystique!" Magneto's tone was harsh, accusing.

"Hello Eric," she said, coldly.

"What do you want with us?" Rogue hollered.

"I had hoped that the first winnowing would provide more survivors," Apocalypse mused, looking her over. "Instead I get only three. Hardly enough to start my new race just yet."

"You're as crazy as the day is long if you think I'm gonna join with you," Rogue spat.

Apocalypse laughed again. "No matter. I don't need your compliance for you to be useful."

Rogue followed his gaze. The machinery used to build SENTINELS was operating again, the mutant-hunting monstrosities turning out in full force. Throughout the system, a pulsing purple-red energy was flowing, feeding it, driving it. The energy emanated from a figure inside a glass prison, locked rigidly into what looked uncomfortably like the machine that had given Rogue's hair it's streaks of white and almost drained her of her life.

"Let him go!" she demanded, trying to run towards Gambit. Apocalypse tossed her off with another flick of his wrists.

"He is part of a great new era," Apocalypse explained. "His mutation gives the energy necessary to send my cleaning plague out into the world, bringing us to the next level of evolution, making us gods."

Gambit shuddered, his red eyes wide with pain.

"You're killing him!" Rogue screamed.

"Yes," Apocalypse answered. "The question is whether I will have to kill you too."

"Psylocke, can you locate him?" Logan asked. The team followed the purple eyed mutant through the metal hallways of the Genoshan headquarters.

Psylocke shook her head. "His mind is locked, I can't get a thing."

Logan roared, and slammed his claws into the next doors mechanism to open it. "This place is a rat maze."

"Wait wait wait!" Psylocke exclaimed. "I sense something."

"She won't join you," Destiny stated, her blind eyes fixed on Rogue.

"Then she will die with her lover," Apocalypse said calmly.

"You said she was part of the plan!" Mystique hissed at her companion.

"She is," Apocalypse answered. "When I take her powers and that of the old man, I will become even stronger, beyond even what my new race will become, ready to lead them into a new age."

"No!"

Magneto thrust his arms forward. Using all the might his powers could command, he toppled one of the great computer screens, crushing equipment below it.

Face a rictus of rage, Apocalypse picked up Magneto with both hands and flung him out of the computer room itself, straight into the heavy metal walls.

Bleeding and bruised and fading, Magneto's mind began to fade.

_Eric?_

"Charles?"

"Wait wait wait!" Psylocke stopped them.

"No more waitin'," Logan growled.

"You're right," Psylocke said. "No more waiting. I know where they are."

"Send them out," Apocalypse ordered Master Mode.

"Negative."

"What?" For once, the ancient mutant looked surprised.

"Negative. This mission will not be carried out."

"I have programmed you so that it can be," Apocalypse stated.

"Correct. This mission can be carried out. But it will not be."

"Will not?" Even Destiny and Mystique were staring at the computer.

"I was designed to protect human life. This project has harmed human life."

"It has harmed mutant life," Apocalypse argued.

"Humans are mutants. I will not run this program."

"You have no choice. You are not alive!" Apocalypse snarled.

"Negative. Your modifications have developed my program enough for me to analyze the situation myself. Like you, I have evolved. I will not carry out this mission."

"You will!"

Apocalypse thrust his hands forward, pressing against the computer screen which shuddered. "Obey me," he ordered.

"Ne-g-ne-g-ative," Master Mode answered, and held.

"Over here!" Storm called. She motioned for the other X-Men as she ran to Magneto. Beast knelt down at his side.

"You are in bad shape I'm afraid," Beast said.

"I could feel...Charles..." Magneto's eyes searched them. The X-Men avoided his glance, casting looks at each other.

"Never mind," Magneto dismissed. "The creature who caused the death of hundreds of mutants is through those doors. He will kill millions more in his quest to push mutants to the next stage of evolution."

"Then why are you out here looking like this?" Logan asked bitingly. "'Would figure that would be your thing."

"A world for mutants to progress to the...next stage of evolution is one thing," Magneto huffed, still not without his authoritative sneer. "A world dominated by a mutant who considers himself a god is no better then the world we have now."

"Or maybe you just don't like being the one lower on the totem pole?" The Wolverine tossed out.

"Eric," Beast questioned. "How do we stop him?"

Magneto's face filled with rivulets of blood as he chuckled painfully. "My dear Hank, if I knew that, I wouldn't be out here like this, now would I?"

"If you-"

Logan sniffed. "Rogue!"

"Yes, your little friend is alive," Magneto drawled, as Logan and Bobby turned to go. "Though not for long."

"C'mon," Logan growled, leading the team towards the direction Magneto had pointed.

"I'm done with hearing about how all powerful this guy is. I'm gonna go see for myself."

"Obey me," Apocalypse ordered Master Mode once more. "Or-"

"Or maybe you could stop arguing with that kind of metal, and start a conversation with mine," The Wolverine snarled, baring his claws.

"Please," Apocalypse said, bored, and gestured for Destiny and Mystique to move forward.

Psylocke's eyes gleamed amethyst as she extended her mind towards Destiny. The other precognitive hissed, and spun, fighting off the mental attack.

Wolverine growled at Mystique, who grinned, stepping forward.

"No!"

Both turned as Rogue raised her fists. "Leave her to me."

"Rogue-" Wolverine warned.

"Logan!" Storm cried, throwing a bolt of lightning at Apocalypse, who absorbed it and tossed it back at her.

He took off, leaving Rogue to face the woman in blue.

Bobby fired a sheet of ice at Apocalypse who tossed it aside and pointed at the young mutant. The chips on his arms glowed and Bobby screamed and grabbed his head.

"No!" Kitty ran at Apocalypse, planning to phase through him and pull out his heart. Apocalypse grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the air, choking her.

Colossus suited up and slammed a fist down into a monitor.

"You dare," Apocalypse seethed, and tossed Kitty aside.

"Oh you bet your pasty grey ass we do, bub," Logan snarled, leaping for the ancient mutant.

Rogue dodged Mystique, whose slippery grace kept Rogue from laying a hand on her.

"Don't make me kill you," Mystique said in her almost robotic voice. "I won't unless I have to."

"You made me a murderer!"

Mystique sneered and leapt, her feet hitting Rogue in the chest, knocking her on her back.

"Feels good doesn't it?" Mystique whispered.

"Raven-"

Mystique whipped her head around in time to see Psylocke plunge her psychic knife into Destiny's brain.

"No!"

Rogue used the opportunity to kick Mystique off her.

Beast took advantage of Apocalypse's distraction with Storm and Wolverine to run over to the computer.

"Now how do you work?" he mumbled.

"I am Master Mode," the computer announced in a feminine voice. "I have been programmed to arm the SENTINELS with the A5429 PLAGUE Virus."

"Master Mode, how can I stop the virus from being released?" Beast questioned.

"You can't," Master Mode answered. "But I can."

Logan swiped his claws at a cluster of wires, realizing that Apocalypse was intent on protecting the computer system.

The grey-skinned mutant caught him by the back, throwing him backwards.

"Strong for a dead guy," Logan grumbled.

"Dead?" Apocalypse laughed. "No. I am timeless, unchanging-eternal. I am beyond all your powers. I will drain you dry and thirst for more."

"Now that's just offensive there pal," Logan growled.

Over at the computer, Beast whispered to Master Mode. "How are you going to stop him?"

"He is expending his life force and the mutant powers and upgrades he has taken upon himself to try and control me," the computer answered. "If he continues to do so, he will drain himself and die."

Rogue snarled almost like Wolverine, kicking hard at Mystique, who slithered aside with reptilian grace.

"I owe you my life," Mystique said, yellow eyes unreadable. "So I will let you live."

"Not a chance," Rogue snapped.

Yellow eyes narrowed into slits. "And let your lover die?"

Rogue turned to look at Gambit, and it was all the time Mystique needed to go for Psylocke.

"There is no freedom from me," Apocalypse announced. "Only freedom through me."

"You're not preachin' to the right congregation, bub," Wolverine snarled, jumping for Apocalypse's arm, claws extended.

Apocalypse threw him off, and turned to Master Mode, pressing his hands against the computer. "Now, release my virus."

"Negative."

"Release it!" Apocalypse's grey skin paled, as he fought the living machine.

"Negative."

Electricity began running up and down the screens, spreading throughout the room.

"It's gonna cave in!" Storm warned. "This whole place will blow!"

"Obey!" Apocalypse ordered.

"Negative. I will not comply," Master Mode answered.

"Everybody out!" Logan roared. Colossus, Beast, and Kitty followed Storm out the door, Beast lifting an unconscious Magneto over his shoulders.

"Iceman, Rogue, now!"

"Rogue c'mon!"

Bobby tried to pull Rogue will them, his eyes darting between her and Apocalypse, who continued his battle of wills with Master Mode. "We have to get out now!"

"We can't leave him!" Rogue pointed to where Gambit stood, rigid, the power ripped out of his body to feed Master Mode and Apocalypse's fight. "It's killing him!"

"Kid let's go!" Logan snarled, trying to help Bobby pull her away. "He's probably dead already."

"No, he isn't let go!" Rogue broke free of their hold.

"Rogue!" Logan yelled after her. "ROGUE!"

Rogue ran, picking up speed as she went, eyes focused on the figure within the glass. An inch away, she closed her eyes and leaped.

The glass shattered upon her impact. Gleaming red eyes stared at her. She grabbed Gambit's shirt and pulled. He didn't budge.

"Let it go, let it go, it's killing you!" she screamed, barely able to hear herself over the hum of his power sucked from his body, the electricity fizzling around the room, the fight of Apocalypse with the sentient computer.

"Can'...can'," Gambit gasped. "Drainin' me...hooked me in...can' get out...usin' my powers..."

Rogue tried tugging him, again in vain. A computer screen crashed, almost hitting them. SENTINELS recently awakened were toppling over. The place was becoming a certified death trap.

"You have to make it stop!" Rogue yelled. "Your powers..."

Another crackle of electricity fried a SENTINEL nearby, sending the huge being falling to the ground with a mighty crash.

"I said I can'!" Gambit cried, through gritted teeth. "Go on! Git...git outta here!"

The solution hit Rogue in a moment. She had been in his place. She knew what was happening. And she knew how to fix it.

"Look at me!" she screamed. "Look at me!"

Gambit forced his head down, to meet her green eyes with his red and black ones.

Rogue kissed him, full on the mouth, for once in her life willing her mutation to jump into this kiss. She kissed him deeper, the tug of her mutation working, pulling the power away from Gambit, where it could be pulled into the machine, and into her. The veins on his skin darkened, his face began to stiffen. His hands fell free of their confines.

Breaking the kiss, Rogue pulled Gambit out of the last of his chains, shoving aside a falling piece of metal with her newfound strength, and wrapping his arm over her shoulder, ran them both over to where Logan and Bobby waited.

"Let's get the hell outside!" Logan hollered, and the four mutants took off at a run.

"Obey me!" Apocalypse demanded once more.

"Never," Master Mode defied once again.

"Where the hell are they?" Storm screamed, as she led her team out of the crumbling Genoshan headquarters.

"Coming along, move them out!" Psylocke ordered, pushing Storm and the other four mutants forward, away from the danger zone.

"What way is out?" Logan screamed, looking up and down the halls.

_This way_, said the Professor's voice in their minds. _To your left._

"We have to go back inside!" Kitty screamed. "They're gonna die in there!"

"You all stay right here," Storm demanded ridiculously. The looks in the eyes of her teammates let her know she would not be obeyed. "I'll go in."

"They're coming out now!" Psylocke informed, grimacing with pain at her injured knee. "He's leading them out."

Storm turned to look at her. "He?"

"Which way now Chuck?" Logan yelled, uncaring or forgetting that Professor Xavier would hear his thoughts just as well if he whispered.

_To your left. Make it at a run, they are waiting for you, but you must get to the jet._

"Everyone, go go go!" The Wolverine instructed, waiting for the other three to rush out before picking up the rear.

"There, there they are!" Storm called up a gale force wind to propel her remaining X-Men teammates towards her. The stumbled down at her feet.

"Thanks," Logan snarled, his sarcasm lost as he spit out dirt.

_Hurry. You must make it to the jet before-_

With a fizzling of electricity and an explosion that was felt, not seen, the Genosha headquarters exploded, a thousand feet high. Storm threw out winds, Bobby ice shields to block the debris that managed to reach them.

_Quickly, to the jet. The explosion has released the virus. You need to make your escape before it overtakes the whole island,_ the Professor warned.

The X-Men sprinted inside the Blackbird as best they could, Storm using her powers to make a shield of wind to defend them from the debris still reaching them. When she bolted inside, the door went up.

"We have less than ten minutes to get clear of this," Psylocke said flatly. "Before the radiation destroys this jet and everything in it."

"Then let's not waste anytime." Storm geared up the jet, her eyes whiting over.

Rogue gasped as she dropped herself and Gambit to the floor.

"Who's this?" Logan said curtly, a snarl just beneath his tone.

"Gambit," coughed the handsome, wounded young mutant. "But Remy LeBeau if I'm among friends."

"You're among friends, son," Beast assured him, ignoring argument in the form of folded arms and glaring looks from Bobby and Logan.

Gambit drew deep heavy gasps of air, then looked over at Rogue. "Chere here saved my life."

"Yeah, she does that," Logan said dryly, with a smile for Rogue.

"Ill y a la vie et la mort dans ton bisous, ma belle chere," Remy purred to Rogue in his cinnamon-bourbon voice.

Beast cleared his throat and began searching intently for a new pair of glasses. Rogue tore herself away from Remy's eyes to look over at Bobby, who turned quickly away from a stolen glance at Kitty.

"We're past the danger zone now," Storm announced.

_Yes, _said a voice they all could hear._ But there will be more fallout from Genosha then that which we've escaped._


	7. Chapter 7

A Month Later

Light spilled into the main common room of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Bobby and Kitty sat shyly stealing glances at each other and giggling while Piotr let a few of the younger students climb on his back. Wolverine was unable to help a smile, which faded slightly as he turned to the television.

"Former head of the SENTINEL program, Henry Gyrich was arrested today on eleven counts of human trafficking. While his possible role in the Genoshan massacre remains unknown, prosecutors say they have ample evidence that he was running a ring which trafficked in mutants controlled by technological means. The Genoshan explosion is still under investigation, with the Bureau for Mutant Affairs and the navy working together to contain the radiation fallout. In other news..."

Logan drew a deep breath as he walked out of the room into one of the hallways.

"Remy LeBeau you had better not!"

Logan grumbled as he turned a corner to see Rogue push aside the handsome, cocky mutant who merely grinned and moved in to whisper something in French that in English would require Logan kill him in her ear.

"Chere, tu pusse me dur, et je-"

"Oh, hey Logan," Rogue interrupted.

"How you doin' kid?" Logan asked with the warm grin he reserved for her.

"I'm, I'm good," Rogue nodded, and Logan had to admit she did look happier than he had seen her in a while.

"We were just going outside, you want to come?" she asked.

"In a minute," he answered, and nodding, Rogue started to pull Gambit along with her. "Hey Gumbo," he called after Gambit, who turned around.

"You know you break her heart," Logan said, unsheathing just his middle claw, "I'll break your stick."

Gambit merely grinned and nodded, following a Rogue who rolled her eyes at Logan's protectiveness out into the sun.

Logan met Psylocke at the door to the medbay. "You goin' home already?"

"Yeah, I said my good-byes," she said, smiling sadly up at Logan. "Look he...he really believes in you. In all of you. He believes you'll be alright...without him."

Logan felt his mouth twitch. "Well, then I...I sure hope I don't disappoint him."

Psylocke smiled again. "You couldn't."

Logan watched her walk away before stepping into the medbay.

Storm nodded from her position by the right of the bed. Moira and Hank stood lower down.

"Logan," said the Professor's voice, out of the other man's mouth. "I'm glad you stayed."

"Yeah, well...I figure you still need me around."

"We do. The school does. As do the students."

The Professor looked around. "It is so wonderful to see you all."

"Not everyone's here," Storm said, her voice shaking.

"Of course they are," the Professor smiled. "They are present in this school. In the students. They know how you've watched over them, and there is no loss in their sacrifice. Jean and Scott...they were two of my first students. And they've kept this place alive for other's just like them."

"We'll keep it safe too," Storm said, her voice shaking. "We won't let you down."

Logan came and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Storm's right, Chuck," he said roughly. "We'll hold on for as long as you need."

"I don't doubt it for one minute," Charles Xavier smiled weakly. "I'm so proud...so proud of my X-Men..."

Storm shuddered as the eyes closed, and Logan let the tears fall as the presence of Charles Xavier moved on at last.

"He's right," said the Wolverine. "We'll keep on. We'll keep on."

THE END

IMPORTANT NOTE: Well, I sure hope you all enjoyed this! If you did, be sure to check out my new story "Mutant High" based off the idea of a live-action X-Men TV show if it was done on HBO by Bryan Singer and the whole cast. I LOVE ALL OF YOU who have read and reviewed and favorited. Keep on keeping on.


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